Gov’t targets 150 Minahang Bayan areas by 2022

The government plans to declare around 150 Minahang Bayan areas in the next three years in line with efforts to make small-scale mining mainstream, an official of the Mines and Geosciences Board (MGB) said.

In a panel discussion during Philippine-Extractive Industries Transparencies Initiative (PH-EITI) National Conference last Wednesday, MGB director Wilfredo Moncano said the agency is fasttracking the processing of Minahang Bayan applications in a bid to legalize small scale mining.

“Right now, we already have 29 approved minahang bayan all over the country and we are reviewing several other applications,” Moncano said.

“We are targeting (to have) 150 Minahang Bayan areas in the next three years,” he added.

On the sidelines of the event, Moncano told reporters the MGB expects to approve around 40 Minahang Bayan applications per year until 2022.

“Up to the end of the year maybe we can get close to 40,” he said.

The MGB official earlier said there are currently about five or six Minahang Bayan applications that have been endorsed to the office of the DENR secretary for clearance.

Moncano is hopeful the pending applications will be approved within the year as the program is the only way small-scale mining can be legalized.

“Our understanding with the DENR secretary is that the only way to integrate the small-scale mining industry to the mainstream is through legalization,” Moncano said.

He emphasized that as the program legalizes small-scale mining operations, stricter requirements would be needed for applications.